Children in the Darkness

There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

Henry M Bechtold

Background: He was in Vietnam in 1967 - 68 and again in 1969. He would go back often because he believed soul lives in Vietnam and he went back to visit it from time to time.
He was sitting in his hotel room in Saigon just before Christmas 2009 and he was trying to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and how badly men treat them. he was angry but unable to write anything that did not sound trite or weak. He looked at the TV and the news was on. He did not know what the news reader was saying but in the background was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. This poem flowed out. The words just came to me and he typed as fast as I could to get it all down.

Poem Analysis
1. Point of View(Evidence): The poet did not support child soldiers. First paragraph.
2. Point of View (Elaboration): The poet feels that the children should enjoy childhood and not army. Army when involved in a war is violent. And so, this child has to face the violence of war, the horrors of war, at such a young age. In the poem, he expresses sympathy and pity for the child soldiers, for they "can not flee" and are "not free".

3. Situation and Setting (Evidence): "Chalk" and "blackboard" are turned into "war", "blood" and "darkness". This shows that the author compares this two different contexts.

4. Situation and Setting (Elaboration): "Chalk" and "blackboard" are essential learning materials, which what one would associate with learning and education. "War", "blood" and "darkness" are gory things which one would connect with war. This two are, however, brought up and made comparison to. This shows that what the author thinks, that the child should study and be educated and not be faced with violence, which are corrupting the child's mind.

5. Language/ Diction (Evidence) : There is the usage of figurative language. The word darkness is a symbol of the children at such a young age losing their lifes due to war. War is personified as a man who can "consume" "their body and thier soul".

6. Language/ Diction ( Elaboration ) : The authors use of figurative language emphasises and prompts the reader to think more about child soldiers.

7. Personal Response : I feel there should be no child soldiers to protect the country. Instead, there should not even be war. War terrorizes us, bringing horrors to our lives, and taking away some too.